Timed Writing

In AP English I remember writing a LOT. My teacher, Ms. Hogg, would assign timed writings at least twice a week to help prepare us for the exam in the spring. I hated timed writing days and I often questioned the necessity of the pressure. In chapter 7 of Christenbury I found easy solutions to help prepare students for timed writings. Page 219 lists 5 prompts to help guide a student's thoughts about the writing topic. I found numbers 1, 4, and 5 to be most helpful. Number 1 explains that the writer must question himself/herself decide which arguments that he or she could make about the topic based on personal knowledge or experience. Number 4 suggests that a student concludes which strategy (compare/contrast, cause/effect, etc.) of writing would best correlate with the writing prompt. The last, number 5, requests that the writer look at the question and decipher in which way to approach writing the answer. These three steps help the student focus on writing to the question by providing specific answers.

When I read the section "Dealing with Time" I gathered useful tips for my own writing. The steps mentioned in this section could be modeled in a classroom to help students. The modeling would be beneficial for timed writings in class, and the steps could also provide a process of writing for students when they are writing at home.